Reviews:

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

Explore the world of books, guidelines, online resources to enhance and improve your management of volunteers .

~November 2010~

Google
http://www.google.com/

Google certainly does not need Volunteer Today to recommend its search engine functions, but a participant in a recent workshop brought to light some features at Google that can be used by those who manage the work of volunteers.  It bears a recommendation from our resource reviewer.

Begin by opening a gmail account (that is a Google email account) and you have access to many other options that are free.  The calendar is a very useful tool.  It allows for multiple users, all of who can enter events, meeting, deadlines, etc..  Colors indicate who entered the item.  People can be allowed to view the site without being able to change something.  It has many uses for working with volunteers.

There is even a “facebook”-like feature on Google.  It is called Orkut.  It could serve as the “face” of the work of a committee, photos, emails, dates, etc.

If you want to provide a way to share things like committee plans or “to-do” lists use the “Docs” feature.  These are only samples of free Web based business applications.  Please go exploring on the site in order to find many more things you might be able to use in a personal or professional manner.